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OPINION

Gilleland: Is all this fuss over Iran necessary?

BrevardCounty
Published 12:10 a.m. ET March 26, 2015

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Don Gilleland is a former corporate director of public affairs for General Dynamics Corp., who is retired and lives in Suntree.(Photo: For FLORIDA TODAY)Buy Photo

All the posturing over the possibility of Iran getting a single nuclear weapon seems like a lot of fuss over nothing, since we have lots of them ourselves. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates we have nearly 8,000, while other estimates go as high as 10,000. Besides, Brevard County isn’t likely to become a target any time soon, is it?

But wait. For at least 25 years, international news reports have claimed Iran’s long-term goals include complete destruction of the “Little Satan” (Israel) and the “Big Satan” (United States). These have been the principal goals of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons since the rhetorical conflict heated up during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

During his reign as the sixth president of Iran (2005-13), he frequently made hugely inflammatory statements against Israel and the United States, claiming they should be wiped off the face of the earth. Could such a thing even be possible with a single nuclear weapon? The short answer is yes.

Our electrical grids contribute to our way of life, a way of life that separates the 21st century from the 19th century. Without electricity, we would literally have to live like they did 200 years ago, and our electrical grids are vulnerable to an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack.

A December 1998 Iranian military journal published an article titled “Electronics to Determine Fate of Future Wars,” and it detailed how an EMP attack on the electronic infrastructure of the United States would be crippling. In fact, it would bring us to our knees, including Brevard County.

Lowell Wood, acting chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from an EMP Attack, said such an attack “could cripple the U.S. by knocking out electrical power, computers, circuit boards controlling most automobiles and trucks, banking systems, communications and food and water supplies.”

EMP attacks are generated when a nuclear weapon is detonated at altitudes a few dozen kilometers above the Earth’s surface. The explosion of even a small nuclear weapon would produce a set of electromagnetic pulses that interact with the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field.

“These electromagnetic pulses propagate from the burst point of the nuclear weapon to the line of sight on the Earth’s horizon, potentially covering a vast geographic region at the speed of light,” Wood said. “For example, a nuclear weapon detonated at an altitude of 400 kilometers over the central United States would cover, with its primary electromagnetic pulse, the entire United States and parts of Canada and Mexico.”

New York Times best-selling author Joel C. Rosenberg says Iran is the most dangerous terrorist state on the face of the earth. It’s senior leaders have stated publicly the end of the world is imminent and they believe the way to hasten that end is to destroy Israel and the United States.

The sad fact is, if they also acquire a way to detonate them at the right height, they would need only one well-placed nuclear weapon to devastate the United States.

In a March 29, 2009 article, presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said “one to three missiles tipped with nuclear weapons and armed to detonate at a high altitude … would create an EMP ‘overlay’ that triggers a continent-wide collapse of our entire electrical, transportation, and communications infrastructure.”

Newt Gringrich, former speaker of the house, has consistently warned of such a threat. “Those who claim that there is little to fear from Iran or North Korea, because ‘at best’ they will have only one or two nuclear weapons, ignore the catastrophic level of threat we now face from just ‘a couple’ of nuclear weapons,” he said.

Someone needs to remind President Obama that allowing Iran to get even a single nuclear weapon could have a disastrous effect on our country.

Gilleland is a former corporate director of public affairs for General Dynamics Corp., who is retired and lives in Suntree. He is the author of “America: A Cultural Enigma” and “America: Where Great Things Happen,” both of which may be bought online or directly from him. His web page is www.donaldgilleland.com.